Towards Reuse-ready PV: a Perspective on Recent Advances, Practices and Future Challenges

Despite its rapid expansion, PV industry confronts challenges (and questions) in end-of-life management (EoL) as the cumulative PV waste is projected to escalate exponentially in the next two decades. The surge in revamping and repowering activities, notably in early PV fleets, accentuates the imperative of refining EoL strategies, emphasizing the need for higher PV reuse-readiness. In the transition from PV operations to EoL, streamlined PV triage/qualification and efficient PV repair strategies become indispensable, to ensure reuse-ready PV and a bankable second-life PV market. In this perspective study, we attempt to shed light on recent research, innovations, practices and future challenges towards higher reuse-readiness in the PV industry; encompassing qualification/triage methods, PV repair strategies, and standardization. An exemplary triage-for-reuse framework is discussed, involving four steps (off-site eligibility checks; on-site inspections and functionality tests; sorting for collection and transportation; and deeper technical checks) and emphasizing the importance of digitalization and advanced inspection, as well as the need for a defined functionality threshold in the absence of standardized regulations for second-life PV. Further, the study reviews recent advances and research in repair strategies for reuse – addressing notably reliability issues of glass-backsheet PV modules – as well as ongoing standardization efforts, underscoring their key role to address the pressing need for resource-efficiency in the entire PV products’ lifecycle: from design/material level to system, operations and maintenance (O&M) and EoL.